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Some People Will Do Anything For Free Cards

You can see the evidence of pack searching in nearly every big box department store that carries sports cards. Those with a pure profit motive in mind will figure out which cards hold the valuable inserts and cherry pick them out of an open box. Sometimes they’ll even use a digital scale, standing in full view of other customers, most of whom probably have no idea what’s going on.

It stinks. For kids, especially, who bug mom for a couple of bucks never realizing they have no chance to get a prize insert.

Most stores, sadly, don’t care or don’t know the tricks of the trade. They rarely chase anyone with mischievous intent away from the card aisle.

The latest scam, it seems, is when an unscrupulous pack searcher takes it a step further. Careful to find a box with generic cello wrap, he carefully opens it, then cuts off one end of the wrappers, takes the cards out and stuffs old commons inside. From there, it’s seal up the packs with glue, re-wrap the box and take it back for a refund.

Bingo.

Free cards.

You can see Beckett’s Chris Olds show us evidence in the video below.

Is it really worth it for the often less than spectacular contents of retail blaster boxes? Apparently so, in come cases. Either that, or it’s just a game.

It’s against the law, of course. If you’re caught, especially if you’ve made a habit of such nonsense, you might wind up in jail. Retail fraud is not something such stores take lightly.

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About Rich Mueller

Rich is the editor and founder of Sports Collectors Daily. A broadcaster and writer for more than 30 years and a collector for even longer than that, he's usually typing something somewhere. Type him back at [email protected]